The Spectacle Blog

Speaking to Wolf Blitzer yesterday afternoon, a fact I'm noting because otherwise, you'd just ask whether Wolf Blitzer was actually still on the air, Rep. Peter King decided to let America know that, if they end up nominating Ted Cruz for President in 2016, well, then, they'll just have to do without Rep. Peter King. Because Ted Cruz is a carnival barker and is probably going to push Peter King off a bridge. Or something.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” the Republican congressman opted not to walk back his comments but instead take about a dozen steps forward.

I'm a tiny bit late picking this up because I had to wait in a ridiculous online queue for Lollapalooza tickets which I didn't get anyway. I suppose that's not that big of a deal, since Kanye West is rumored to be the primary headliner, but still. Can't something remind me that summer is only a few short months away?

Anyway, while I'm busy feeling sorry for myself over concert tickets, John Kerry, who should feel sorry for himself for being in any way involved with foreign policy, will allow another deadline to pass: the original deadline by which the international negotiations team was supposed to have a deal that would halt the progress of a nuclear Iran. Unsurprisingly, that deadline has been rendered all but meaningless, and Kerry will not even return to the barganing table until Thursday.

The original Tuesday deadline in the Iran nuclear talks will pass without a framework for a final agreement nor congressional action on bills to impose new sanctions or require approval of a deal.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal came out with a report which alleges that Israel was spying on the P5 +1 nuclear talks with Iran.

Naturally, the Obama Administration is furious. But take a look at this quote from an unnamed senior Obama Administration official:

It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy.

So this senior Obama Administration official readily acknowledges that it spies on Israel. It takes a certain amount of audacity to say. "It's OK for us to spy on you, but you don't you dare spy on us and use it against us." But then again this is the Obama Administration and they specialize in audacity.

If you, like me, were disappointed over the weekend when the person mixing up your tiramisu latte didn't offer to have an in-depth conversation with you about the state of race relations in America ("it's 8:30am on a Saturday, it's way too early to talk about racism"), you may not have a chance to live out your dream of discussing uncomfortable subjects with uninformed strangers much longer. At least, as far as Starbucks is mandating it.

According to Starbucks, the #RaceTogether promotion, which was widely ridiculed for being utterly ridiculous, ended on Sunday and baristas are no longer required to request that you "race together" to a better America. They're "moving on" to other aspects of the multi-dimensional campaign. And while most people looking forward to getting a bit of social justice with their morning espresso were under the impression the promotion would last for weeks, Starbucks says the short stint was all that was in the plan, and that they're "moving on."

In launching his presidential campaign today, Senator Ted Cruz showed he has a fondness for the word imagine using it 38 times in his speech. On one of those occasions, Cruz even implored his audience to text the word.

Now there's nothing wrong with the word imagine in of itself. I suppose Cruz and his team intended imagine to be their answer to Barack Obama's use of the word hope. The only problem is that the word imagine is so strongly associated with John Lennon and naturally a lot of people picked on up on it and are having fun with it including The Daily Caller.

Well, it might just my imagination (sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation), but I don't think Cruz and company were seeking to be associated with the late Beatle. If this is the case then they might have better suited to choosing a different theme word for the campaign.

Towards the conclusion of his 2,700 word plus article on Ted Cruz's forthcoming GOP presidential bid announcement, Jeff Lord acknowledges, "Ted Cruz is, of course, not Ronald Reagan. As with every other human on the planet, there was only one Reagan."

Yet this does not prevent Jeff from making 67 other references to Ronald Reagan in his piece.

I just don't see it.

Now don't get me wrong. Ted Cruz has very quickly found his way to the national stage. But then again so did Barack Obama. And much like Obama, he's throwing his hat into ring scarcely two years into his Senate term without much in the way of achievement. While the two men are diametrically opposed ideologically, I see more parallels between Cruz and Obama than I do with Cruz and Reagan.

It's morning in America. Although, given that I'm under 2 inches of snow and Ted Cruz is dominating the news cycle, it's more likely to be a morning in December of 2013, than one in March of 2015. But whatever. Happy Presidential Election Kickoff Day, everyone!

And, as announced, Senator Ted Cruzis the first out of the gate to declare his intention to compete for the Republican Presidential nomination. He officially launched his campaign for President this morning, with the obligatory "video that looks like it was cobbled together after someone ran a search for "America" on a stock photo site. Cruz's is entitled "A Time for Truth," and it is very, very patriotic. There are many waving flags, tow-headed children, working Americans, baseballs flying and things of that nature.

His longer, more comprehensive ad, which features him in shirtsleeves talking about his American-ness, is here.

Perhaps you read his recent piece on how President Barack Obama, working with the Ford Foundation—yes, the Ford Foundation!—and the non-political State Department, attempted a second-story job on the recent Israeli election and failed ignominiously (“Heavy Meddle: Obama in Jerusalem”). Possibly just today you read of how the nascent Israel Air Force was founded by expat Yankee Jews whose exploits in World War II on behalf of the Allies whetted their appetite to go off to Israel and fight in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. Many of the nonagenarians were still alive and kicking when Nancy Spielberg began her documentary on them in 2011. Jay has a prevenient sense for a dramatic story and he will be bringing it to AmSpec.

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